under bushels

*under bushels*

Lights under bushels
How many there concealed
Is as if our shadows scare us
Drive away our own strengths
Leave us a tree stripped of leaves
By withering storm perpetual.

an ending

** an ending **
Sprinkled splintered freckled glass
Biting into pores
Pin pricks deep on nerve endings sparking
A torture unavoidable
A madness in the soul's abyss incited
Melting people and cityscapes
Every sound carnival and tactile
Wind's claws tear at me
Sun's beams molten crash over me
Every glance or gaze an inquistition
Sure my heart is bared
My every thought illuminated
On my billboard naked face
This is an ending
Emotional and crucifying
Leading to totality of oblivion
Of who I am and ever was.

the unavoidable disease

** the unavoidable disease **
Illnesses chronologically arrive
The days of mumps or measles gone
The 24 hour cold and viruses
No more do they visit
At this age reached
They squat uninvited
Remain elusive to removal
Find space to occupy in lungs
Cause you to greet each day with a cough
Leave dull pains across body complete
Make limbs ache and joints creak
Lungs out of breath wheeze
Ricepaper thin wrinkled skin
Speckled with kidney purple dots
Heart a tired failing pump
Disintegration of body mortal
Time the unavoidable chronic disease.

calls for defence

* calls for defence *

Stalin called last night
Requested a defence
Said he didn't kill his opponents
Gulags existence are lies
And besides they deserved it

Jack the Ripper wrote in
Said he was a cleanskin
The murders done in his name
Those killings infamous
Done by another not he
And besides they deserved it

These killers wholesale or retail
Always without fail
Have a reason why
Someone else has to die
Divine inspiration or for the greater good
Strange how when good for all pursued
At exclusion of individual rights
Leads to a removal of rights for all
A sentence of death for others
Workings of the mind logical
Conclude in decisions homicidal
And always the reasoning
It was never it was another
The mechanisms of the State
Due to duty to be performed
And always always sinner or saint
Because they deserved it.

lead a brave life

* lead a brave life *
Your tears for what could have been
Must be leavened by what became
Days of reflection despairing
Should not set aside days of caring
No tree ever grows truly straight
Neither path direct takes Fate
Things for better may have fallen
Or worse may have come calling
Other lives in perfection seem
Symmetry of a glorious dream
Unless lived you cannot see
What is or ever shall be
Embrace moments precious close
Use experience for joy or woe
Be constant ever living grow
These tears you shed are real
Allow them to water your zeal
Fertilise and nourish life you crave
Let life not see you timid ever onward be brave.

Wrestle-ism

* Wrestle-ism *

Wrestle mania introduces
Man against philosophy
Which ism will he use
To address his need for a framework
A guide to understanding
His life and how it should be lived
Materialism and conspicuous consumption
Is a presently favoured form
Joy derived from gathering possessions
Or perhaps environmentalism
Rearrange the pecking order
Planet and animals give more import
Than the demands of insatiable humanity
Communism has been dismissed
While capitalism survives
Proven unreliable unregulated
The foxes tend to strip the chicken coop
Rationalism shows no compassionism
All these isms to philosophical keen
In our ignorance we do not see
The latest western philosophy on TV
Has captured the common ground
Concludes swiftly in four rounds
Beloved by politicians in elections
Used by parents and teachers in addressing children
All flair and action and choreographed moves
A sense of danger sanitised
Everyone is an actor
Whoever has the best soundbite wins
Wrestle-ism creates a constant din
No need for meaning to look deeper within
Live in peaceful acquiescence
Pick your team hope to win
And a large tv and a worthless vote
Facebook page to make you feel you are loved
Internalise the sense of powerless rage
Let it out when your team wins the league
Or a power blackout occurs
In the masses be another furious anonymous face
Alike to all the others in the crowd
Wrestle-ism on the streets
It isn't organized or pretty
It is the philosophy of our Western cities.

night offers

_night offers_

The night offers solace
A veil behind which to hide
Alcohol for your conscience
Fairground attractions to ride
All on fortune's waters cast
A bet on present future past
Every moment may be the last
Allow your head to spin
Dissolve all reason from actions
Press against sweat warm skin
Take blind kisses deep within
Beneath veil of night be lovers
Never let the daylight in.

everybody knows the gfc

$€£ everybody knows the gfc £€$

Everybody knows the dice are loaded
Everybody knows the mortgagees lied
The rates were always set to spiral
Bond-holders were always going to fry
Keep on playing pass the parcel
Built on a web of rating lies
Bonuses will be taken
Cut of prime steak covered in flies

The buzz everyone was hearing
From Wall Street to the Fed Reserve
Everyone knows the deals were sticky
Black tar upon your hands
Even as you fail a bank or two
No ones knows what those instruments do
A day of reckoning is coming

The ninjas got no income
No jobs and no assets Nothing down everything borrowed
What's a broker meant to do
Got payments due on the Mercedes
Want the condo with the beachfront view
Everybody knows the loans are rotten
Old black joe's still picking cotton

That's how it goes
Everybody knows...

sacred house

* sacred house *
Dreams of yesterday still cling
Dreams of passions fire and desires whim
Kisses so scalding smoked every atom of you
Nights so long stumbled into dawn
Insatiable only briefly sated in bed
An eager industrious bee on your nectar fed
First bloom of passion without rest
Such flavour and beauty and zest
My morning arc and blue sky
My answer to every why
Afternoon delight and splendour
To Kubla Khan's dome send you
Evening's cloak conceal us
Our love a private sacred house.

to before

*** to before ***
Strip time from celebrity tears
Take us back to first innocence
Return to before
Before the drugs and stupidity
Grand standing culpability
Jailhouse sad snapshots
Late-night comedian cheap shots
To the talent freshly found
Before every utterance had to be profound
Before corporates opened their doors
Before the hanger-ons and whores
When the dream was another show
Not getting money for more blow
You appeared under headline of singer
Not twice divorced no longer a winner
As quickly as they build you up
Aim to bring you down
Need new headlines every day
Will publish what gossips say
To lowest common denominator pander
Every line a new form of slander
Tortured and misquoted
Your peaks outweighed by troughs
Until unsure who you are or were
Another talented moth
Lured then burnt by glow of fame.

cost

* Cost *

I used to think dreams were free
Of cost or obligation
How wrong could you be
Not to know the debt accrued
To do one thing cannot do two
Time is first payment due
Second is a certain point of view
A schelerosis of an open mind
In doing learn how world is set
Your innocence fades with much regret
The vision seen in darker hues
No beginning ever as fresh
As those you begin
When you don't know what to do
As every start after has taint of before
You are no longer intrepid explorer
Instead a jaded tourist
Revisiting the sites of previous trips
Wondering why they are not as good as you recall.

thinking dome

** thinking dome **

Welcome to the thinking dome
Place your thoughts on full
Open up to every concept
Give wildest ideas a whirl
There is no gender here
We care not for class or status
Nationality creed or race
The only things with merit
Upon which you may be judged
Are the thoughts you create
Depth of think in thought
Within the thinking dome it is so
About your thinking and your thought
A utopia we declare
Not about what you wear
The size of rocks in jewellery
Not about your height or beam
What you have done
Or where you have been
Each thought in isolation and whole judged
The thinking dome exists
Beyond all limits of prejudice
Rational intellectual clarity demand
A clear ozone bright light
Interrogating thought ruthlessly
Removing all human emotion
Weighed against every other view
The thinking dome would thus ever be
A place of ruthless abstraction
Of paralysis beyond measure
Where all equally are tortured
And human thoughts enthanized for pleasure.

the never was

* the never was *

It was never to be
On different continents we existed
In different worlds we moved
Our thoughts together only on electronic page
Sharing our sensuality
Our powerless rage
Against an unequal world
Commenting on mundane life
Detailing crisises large and slight
The space between we could never close
Would take a multi-continental flight
So we kept sharing though we sat
On extremities of time zones
Edge of emotional war zones
No Man's land of email
Where responses we colour
With own desires and wantings
Make our imperfections diminish
Moved by politeness to agreement
For conversation was so lush
Crucifying ourselves in belief
Chosen one across distance resided
Till actual life brought us back
Showed riches here not there
A lag developed
Then responses missed
The what we had never was
And so disconnecting will never be.

works harvest

** works harvest **

Small islands of words
Clumps of lines paragraphical
Pages of letters reminding of
Long fields of grape vines
Fruit ripening in abundance
Farmers harvest joy
To see efforts translated
Into tangible result
So the author at the desk
Tilling fields of thought
Bring order to creativity
Grow a story strong
Mend and patch and invigorate
Places where crop of words is scarce
To conclude the growing season
Harvest a novel rich and full.

marching feet

*~marching feet~*

These marching feet are loud
Drown out a man's commonsense
Make him commit acts brave
Make him act depraved
Believe all risk and loss acceptable
That there is a justice in war
Righteousness in munitions
To blow your enemy to God knows where
Shed blood and spread despair
Belief your country's leaders are right
Though previously they had not appeared too bright
This is war they all declare
An excuse to make all actions right
And the marching feet keep marching
Every single hour of every day of every single week.

better story not to forget

+ better story not to forget +
This love blooms undaunted
Incapable of hiding
Tsunami in which I'm caught
Ready to face any foe
Challenge any adversary
Endure any hardship
Cross any wasteland or sea
Desert my family clan or country
Disown all I was before
To only you be true

Lighthouse for my soul
Companion to my life
Holder of my love
Soon to be my wife
Let no law or wall between us stand
All I shall overcome
No limit on my love
No limit to my endurance
Let them have their Romeo and Juliet
Feuding Montague and Capulet
We shall each other have
Without the poison or the blade
Our love be the story
None who meet us will forget.

trogs rising

* Trogs rising *
Fusion of brightness
Through lids closed tightly
Forced intimacy of heat of summer
Blazing light so bright
Supernova on the mind
Escape from blindness deep
Trogolytes of earth
Now time to rise
Escape the chill subterranean
In the warmth and light above
Open lives to love.

springtime viewing

* springtime viewing*
Easily influenced
Distracted by sybarite thoughts
Leather thigh high boots
Or dress panels revealing
Warm spells mean resurrection
Of thoughts carnal
You dress for you not me
Still I appreciate the display
Confidence shown in your choices
A connoisseur of beauty
Admiring the Springtime view.

commuter thoughts

> commuter thoughts <
Hidden faces hidden lives
Of everyday workday commuter
Bent into covers of a book
Or shield of newspaper raised
Making oblivious thoughts libidious
Such insidious lacidious
In carnal kernels held
As travel journeys meld
With other commuters travelling
From work start to night fall.

how dreams die

*how dreams die*
Lost continents slip
Dreams subside
The worlds of tomorrow demand
Ever forward moving
Ever triumphant calling
Days of wine give way
To days of black water
Worlds of tomorrow fade
Stripped by needs of present day
Dreams set aside die of neglect
All those worlds foreseen
Become taunting hemlock tasting dream.

the maiden ceases

* the maiden ceases *
The maiden dances
Clad in white and barefoot
The maiden turns and whirls
A blur of seagull white
Her smile red enchants
Alive with delight
A smile for kissing
Worthy of loving and killing
Those watching thumb programs
Try and find her name
I feel their eyes upon her
Lusting and profane
The maiden dances
Does not know their game
How they cheapen her with whispers
Obscure her truth with fame
When she leaves the stage
Have to deal with all their issues
The dance will be left behind
Who she is decline
As skin the maiden like an onion
Gut the maiden like a fish
Till hung drawn and quartered
The dancing maiden ceases to exist.

vulcanisation

*vulcanisation*
Your heat a furnace
Dragging oxygen from air
Breath to lungs scalds
Suffocation through passion
Delirious and love fevered
Dehydrating to dust
Death of self likely
Our egos and selves merging
Irretrievably bonding
To part would need to shatter
Vulcanic forces ensure
Our heat transforms common carbon of us
Into brilliant diamond shining.

tryst

*** tryst ***
Recall those trysting moments
So many hours long
Mere fragments reside
A smile imprinted on my memory
A single appraising look
Which for eternity held me
A deep sensation of joy
To bedrock of my being
I cannot recall clearly what we did
No instructions or directions retained
As to how to raise your deepest smiles
Bring forth golden sheen of sweat
No effort or thought then was required
And so if we tryst again
(twist and touch and turn and kiss)
An occurrence as inevitable
As the seasons change
The same spontaneous delight
Sensual smile wielding joy
Shall be ours to discover
As if our lips had never met
Spontaneous in loving without regret.

gaps of now

**gaps of now**
You wonder what falls
Beneath gaps of now
Into another world illusionary
Where dinosauric monsters roar
The decisions made revert
To the choices unchosen
From there grows and flows
Windscreen smashed spiderweb
Of other lifelines in Time
And there beneath you find
Fresh gaps of now
Into another world illusionary
Where dinosauric monsters roar.

frozen

* frozen *
The winter wind is cold
Your gaze more so
Stops my quavering heart
Freezes spirits solid
Leaves me lost in blizzard
Of want to happens
And flurries of never bes
Icicle spike through heart
Deflating emptiness consumes
Every breath and every thought
Frozen paralytic statis attained.

falter

* falter *
Each end burns
Towards the central core
Health and wealth
In equal measure displaced
Thin ice of security cracking
Self confidence ebbing
The fates identify
To toy a while with one
Give hope then raise rocks
On which to dash those fragile hopes
Smiles lengthen grow haggard
Coughing settles in lungs
Both health and wealth
So tightly entwined
Begin a catastrophic terminal decline.

I within

*~ I within ~*
You decline and decay
Lose sense of urgency
The mundane daily everyday
Captures you more in everyway
Catch a glint in stranger's eye
In a trysting spark find the I
Who you thought was gone
Still resides in your bones
Had never left your heart or soul
In a moment find self made whole.

fire

*fire*
Morning,
dawning,
thoughts creep,
feel of pulse,
under melting skin of throat,
lips sensual kisses quote,
heat rising stirs passion,
fire truck sirens sound.

empty

_empty_
Torn cards
Shredded photos
Deleted memories from disk
Fridge cleared of your yogurt
Medicine cabinet items in bathroom bin
A bag of clothes for charity
Creating other spaces empty of you
To match the one in the bed
In my heart and in my head.

down

***down***
The bells ring
Headaches ache
End is closer
Disposition moody
Almost look forward to
Hearing clumps of earth
Striking the coffin lid.

storm watch

*storm watch*
Driving rain all around
Not a cloud in the sky
Gale force winds hold me back
No breeze disturbs tree leaves
All just metaphors
For thoughts in turmoil
Life has turned adverse
All plans stalled or in reverse
Must throw self on kindness of strangers
Even if they know it not
Rely on humanity's better Nature
To do what is right
Holding dreams and breath in tight
Try and ride out this storm in life.

crash

*crash*
Car crash thoughts
Sometimes too easily rise
Crush mood of optimism
Slash rising kite of hope
Leave you desolate
Unhinged and emptied
Hearth without fire or heat
Another almost could have been
Spun off to galaxy of
Never will ever be.

what sailors know

* what sailors know *
Between the edges
Of now and forever pledges
Division of heart
And awkward needy physicality
There tundra unwarmed by love
The sensual oasises beckoning
Affirmation of self
In rocking rhythmic arms
Of adulteress Sea
Ready to abduct your heart
Tear your world asunder
Leave you as driftwood cast
Upon a deserted beach.

lull between

*** lull between ***
The lull between thoughts
Between kisses rich
Fingers tangled in your hair
As move to brush aside
Reveal tender softness of skin
Warmth of your being
Tremble beat of your pulse
My lips seek spot revealed
Address and hover and graze
Exploring sensual sensitivity
Rejoicing in this smallest carers
Acknowledged tactile acceptance
You release a low murmur
As arch against me
Ready for greater explorations
Deeper kisses and caresses
Sensual intimacies in which to rejoice.

two thoughts

*two thoughts*
This is evil
Sapping of a soul
Denial of worth
Hard to understand
How a mere salaried role could mean so much
Be irretrievably linked
To feelings of self
And yet this rut
Has been my other home
With people I know and understand
Better than I care to admit
Got beneath my nails
Became part of my epidermis
Hours of my life expended
Which I cannot reclaim
As with all seconds lived
Once consumed must be accepted
The life lived Time spent
Was that which it was
Time holds no dress rehearsals
Suck eagerly at teat of Time
Once gone there is no more for you.

x kiss sweetly

* x kiss sweetly *
Kiss sweetly
Lips meet neatly
Press together
As sealing a letter
Heat build at meeting
Spreads through body
As lips viscous meld
Opening the senses
As lips seal communication
Private network of two
A call answered
When lips meet
Kiss sweetly.

dark hills

* dark hills *
The dark hills
Life in shadows
Over borne by all
Existing on such small a ration
Hope as roughage
Assist the passing of
Oily fecal matter
Which comprises life.

for paupertuity

* for paupertuity *
The walls are closing in
Debtors at the door
Ain't enough days to work
To pay them all
The tide been against forever more
It don't get any easier with extra mouths to feed
Only time I see for rest is when I'm dead
Until that time is get out of bed
Get myself to work I dread
A pittance of a wage
Spent before I start
To pay the mortgage to
Keep a roof over our heads
We haven't eaten decent
Since I can't remember when
The clothes we are wearing
Have just got to last
No money to replace what is past
The money woes keep going
Round and a round
I wake each morning
In a dreadful state
The walls are closing in
Debtors at the door.

escape plan

* escape plan *
Find my swords under the bridge
Keys for car are on the fridge
We are getting out today
Nothing better stand in the way
Had enough of the hypocrites
Puffed up cane toad shits
On their soapboxes inciting division
Believing bullshit they have been given
Think they are king of truth
Pity their facts aren't argument proof
Yet still the innocent are hurting
Mad dog words fermenting
Hate bigotry and anger
Emotions which dangerously linger
After their lying ceases
Embers of hate have longer leases
So get the swords and fuel the car
To get to promised land got to travel far.

tired

* tired *
All the past sketches
Of mistakes from long ago
In thoughts are parading
Keep scurrying back and fro
All of sleep's angels
Cannot lay these demons down
Morning will find me snarling
Better nature gone to ground
All the simple things complicated
All the complex beyond my knowing
A day of numbing work lays ahead
And the troubles of yesteryear
Clogging up my head
Dilemmas of today stalk me
And sleep a desperate dream
As sand through fingers escapes
The day grows longer than my hope.

a bitter howling

* a bitter howling *
The howls are louder than a jet engine
Someone for perceived injustice must pay
Our expectations must be honoured
Beliefs of how society is supported
Even if this contradicts the reality of what occurred
Burn the witch or stone her
Vilify her in the media
Lead with emotion not fact
Call the usual mad dogs
Let them howl of conspiracy
So much easier to play the game
Rather than report the other side.

withdrawal

* withdrawal *
These long moments
Unpuncuated by script
Writing addict cold turkey
No words laid down
No lines ingested
Emptiness without prose
A non existence of time passed
Without a record it did not happen
These words now relieve the itch
Cannot make whole what was
The story continues
To the reader seamlessly
Only the writer frets
For Muse's temporal magic lost.

geisha

** geisha **
Silhouette of smile
On a wall so plain
Geisha mystique beckons
Silk and tea and song
Cultured loving way
Seduction not assault
Senses left to guess
Kimono concealing
True shape and true form
Raises desire unwrap mystery
Whoever in our world
Could have power to resist.

*other forms *

*other forms *
Flexi legged plasticine people
Set out on the benches
World's sighing light pierces
Armour of our senses
Drifting unbound as any autumn leaf
Held together by skewers of joy
Thrust through this body of grief
Modern insular affliction
Raked by an educated conscience
Devoured by lack of sleep
Pin-stripped zombie staggers
Hungry for a hit of brains.

edge

** edge **
Sleep smothers me
Tentacles tangling grasp
Deep bed sea bed
Drawn down to drown
Loss of all ability
To swim in wakefulness
Half world of dulled edges
Conversations indistinct
Eroded dreams linger
On edge of realities perception
An intangible insanity
Cure a decent restful sleep
Till then insomniacs living nightmare
World constant on edge of dream.

dream state

* dream state *
Sounds of someone elses dreams
Fill every niche of my head
Media outlets all promoting
Political philosophies for which I must be voting
Ends up those we elect
Have different philosophies in their head
Serving the greater public good
Not a priority on their agenda
Everywhere that I turn
Other dreams against me chafes
Demanding I bend to another's will
Not have my own perceptions
Not consider other selections
And if your dreams don't take
I make action from revolutionary will
Clear the slate and impose
My dream magnificent on all.

always in the jaws

* always in the jaws *
Lost in the clouds
Thoughts of winning
Ambitions oft considered
Never quite delivered
Chances spilled
Opportunities missed
Clumsy out fielder of fortune
Fate destined never to fickle my fancy
I am one hand clapping
Always a penny short and a minute late
All the sweat and hope expended
Culminating in nothing
Providence unified to defeat me
On every commercial venture
Stock raising or public float
I am the Jonah punter
Tickets shredded in shadows of finishing post
Another certainty proving
Unreliability of sport of Kings
Another lesson for this chancer
Neither luck nor knowledge is my thing
It were as if I had
An albatross in past slain.

rebel

* rebel *
You want to be different
A rebel with a cause
Who stands out as different
Forget the piercings hoops and rings
Creating a basketball court
Is no manifestation of rebellion
Self mutilation to join a sub grouping
A sign of wanting to belong
To rebel you must lead
See failures across all generations
Make your rebellion a crusade
Towards something better
And if you truly succeed
Evidence found in giving generations
As yet unborn
Something against which to rebel.

over a beer

*over a beer *
So sitting drinking
Sharing a bottle of beer
Implies an intimacy
Which is not there
To linger lips where yours were
Share molecules biological
Talking about this and that
History of Holy Roman empire
Anything so long as do not disrupt the view
Of a pretty girl smiling
Of attractiveness beguiling
A pleasure always
To share a beer with you.

Spring Sun

**Spring Sun**
Sun.
On face
Glee overflowing
Passion in my thoughts
Sensual kiss of breeze
Makes me think caresses lingering
Heat ribbons tingling
From core to curling toes
A rush as petal soft lips
Enclose over lips
Exploring enthusiastically greeted
Melding blending crush
Where one stops and other starts
Not needed to be found
Nothing more profound
Than in Spring kisses lost
Sun absorbed within
Breeze lover's breath
A sensual sharing joyous.

dark

$$ Dark $$

This talk of darkness light

a lack of heaviness to the disquiet

as if the wind is only moaning

creaks are the house settling

you know there is more in the darkness

in the hiding of the night

sometime slow and silent comes

has claws and teeth and extra fangs

would drink blood if you let it

would get in and then

expect you to pet it

lock the locks

click the snibs

pull down the bolts

swing gates closed

stay inside all night long

something dark and terrible this way comes

has no thought of laughter long

except the type hysterically strung

senses every breath you take

makes your heart pause and body quake

this thing you cannot see

this thing of terror out there free

and as you listen for its step

you realise nothing outside to fear at all

all the fear should be in you

for darkness bleak which this way comes

is own your coiled thoughts within

if to insanity reason succumbs.

 

heard as old

*heard as old*
I can not see outside my gaze
I never felt I aged
Oldness is for others
Never will I be elderly
Then in conversation mark
How I must stop and start
For common things I know
Outside your realm of knowledge
Happened before you were born
Are views no longer held
The world has moved on
Those I knew as a youth are gone
If the media finds time to mention
Is in an obituary
A remembrance penned and stored
Relating a time when they could not be ignored
You do not know these names and deeds
Have others who you watch
Who are to you of significance
Has always been the same
The young pursue fresh game
As the old recall thrill of yesteryear
And find the stories they tell
Fall on uninterested ears.

spring sweeps in

~Spring sweeps in~
Winter is gone
Cloudy skies clear
Spring sweeps on in
Sunshine and storms
Growth in the trees
Bird song loving pleas
Nests they are building
Spring scents are set free
Strangers are smiling
Laughter is growing
Humour a pollen on air
Spring is infectious
Change of season maladies
Allergies and sneezes
This is a fine time of year.

The Howard legacy

* The Howard legacy *

 

Desire language used without obfuscation

then I hear the politicians speak

every answer a higher form of gibberish

such damage on Shakespeare's language they wreak

can't cross a road without a chicken

never met a cliché they didn't like

make journalists appear literary geniuses

even through their spell-check fails

trying to find a new way of saying

the whole writing world is off the rails

did Solzhenitsyn have to suffer

so Big Macs can be for sale

was the Long March a victory

for the Big Australian to sell more steel

the winners keep on winning

$16 million for a banking CEO

which has enforced pay cuts

for the common working joe

the language never grows better

to describe outrage in our hearts

cri de coeur haunting

Les Miserables arise

for the mortgages are daunting

crushed all dreams of buying

the quarter acre vision subdivided

and our soldiers are still fighting

for Mesopotamia's ancient heart

I wonder where the line divides

Johnny's own ventricular organ.

  

life break

*~ life break ~*
Lift up your wings
Smuggle me to freedom again
Make my escape
Wrapped in your embrace
Smile on your teeth
Fellow conspirator and friend
Saving is not easy
Takes a special kind of fend
Thanks to your parents
School universe and friends
Whether they nurtured or tortured
Lead or prevented you
I appreciate what you became in the end
So hold me in close
Tell lies to the guards
Open the gates
Freedom is beckoning
Love is our key
Passion our wings
Deep in embrace
Let us escape my friend.

wallpaper horses

*** wallpaper horses ***
Wallpaper horses galloping
Only never gaining
On the other wall
Frozen there
Fetlocks frailing
Foam of sweat upon chest
Such desperation presented
Torture of effort
Eyes bulging out
Almost terror in their strides
Across the wall
Trying to reach the other side.

when you are ill

* when you are ill *
I expect the dependability of other people
Think their judgement would be as mine
Expect they would do as I would do
If visiting a doctor detail fully why they are there
Question if need be advice given
Come out with drugs needed
Or referral required
And if nothing can be done
Have stoicism to accept and move on
I am unannoyed by your illness
I am frustrated by dithering
Be sick or well
And when sick play the role of one who is sick
Do not be a constant martyr
Go to bed and rest
Take your illness to another place
Just be sick
Allow others to lend a hand
In your absence things may be done differently
Unlikely we will forget to breath
If we get hungry we will feed
As long as it is not structural damage
A little untidiness can be ignored
Just worry about yourself
Let others worry about all else
So if I seem uncaring
Or appear to grow to anger
Is because I care too deeply
And it strains me so
When you appear to neglect
This caring of yourself
Do not rest and medication take
To restore your precious health.

second thoughts

* second thoughts *
Oh Moses what did you think
When your God chose
Seven plagues on Egypt to inflict
Did you plead for another way
Before an altar pray
Why the need to give such pain
Couldn't you just pack up and go
This God seed signs and dreams
Stating let my people go
Instead Egyptians tortured
Rivers running red with blood
Locusts consuming crops
First born children slain
Not a God with which to trifle
Such an imaginative and fierce deity
Did you not harbour second thoughts
If being people chosen was so great
Though I guess kept such thoughts to yourself
To avoid his omnipotent wrath.

needed

* needed *
The talent of humanity
In art or humour
Those things which apparently
According to biologists
are not required for our existence
For our ongoing survival
And yet could we function as well
Without humour as a valve
For the oppression of our masses
Doesn't art by appealing to other areas
Of a brain mainly primordial
Allow us to practise thinking
Thoughts higher and more temporal
Than where next meal is coming from
In building cathedrals
Our ancestors thought of form and beauty
Bestow majesty upon these
Gathering halls for God
For even in Nature
Beauty means strength
Elegance and grace is efficiency in form
Without aspirations artful
Or humour to ease social interaction
We could not have risen
Achieved humanity's accomplishments.

expect

* expect *
What we expect
The world we project
In mind and speech
How different now
From what went before
Can we truly expect to understand
Those who before
These who come after
The lives they lived shaped differently
Than those we lead
In a life as length of string
Our shaping is the middle
What was gone as we lived
What is now we only see if involved.

dark shade

* dark shade *
Feeling desperate and feeling strange
No way to freedom
No kind games
Love is washed out
Pain is real
Life is falling
Death approached with zeal
Good times it seems were all decades ago
Nothing to cling to
Such rank despair
Bad is bad
There ain't no good
Falling depressive
Dreams of yesteryear
Make keen this hurt
Inner pain so real
The fences high
No escape
What is done is done
Seems I am broke
No way to fix way I am
Tethered line to world of life
How easy to slice
Pass me the knife
For life isn't easy
And life is long
Death so short in comparison.

other side of down

?. other side of down .?
You bound from lowest troughs
To highest peaks once again
You know the air here rarefied
A gulp is far too much
And you swallow as much as you can
Exhilaration makes your senses swoon
You are on the other side of down
This soaring eagle brilliance
Overwhelming affability unstoppable
No one shines as brightly
Energy to spare
You are on the other side of down
This opposite from endless total despair.

freeform cohen

*freeform cohen*
There is a crying tiger
Sharing a bottle of vodka
With a wailing mandolin
Songs of ages sewn in golden thread
Into curtains of your boudoir
A voice on the gramophone
Haunted by a thousand melodies
Has begun to sing in tongues
Songs which sound familiar
You have never heard before
Drunken penguins slurring words
As they and chat up
An off-key blues piano
Your smile looms broader
Than our half-finished bottle
Of orange tea and Gordon's gin
Wandering troubadour is singing
Of all the beauties he has seen
While we slowly waltz blindly
Tangled in streamers of sins
This perfume is adultery
Lipstick Nazi Berlin red
Flamingoes shake off feathers
Mix with cherry blossom
On vastness of your bed
You are tempting Salome
I am a drowned sailor
Fairy tales a crown
Of thorns upon my head
The night has been longer
Than dusk to dawn has ever been
Your hair is the darkness
Eyes hold galaxies sparkling
Each kiss we exchange
Inverts laws of gravity
Repeals chimes of Time
These moments are forever
Drunk on love and plum wine
Addicted to your flavour
All I am forever thine
Reading curtains golden thread
There is always one more chorus
Always one more line
In the boudoir of your mind.

sweetly speak

* sweetly speak *
Find pleasant things to say
For have you ever noted
If unpleasantness you speak
How ugly you appear
As if brain directs muscles
To hideously reflect
The ugliness you express
Grow so unattractive and twisted
A being so unhandsome
Drowning such considered a good deed
Especially when set against
If joyfully you speak
This beauty of exclamation
Reflected positively in visage
If you put aside the harshness
Hardness of your words
Instead found something to praise
Not to constant denigrate
Every person whom you meet
Every place which you visit
How beautiful might you appear
How wondrous world grow
If you spoke and thought
In language temperate and sweet.

Dancer ***

** Dancer ***
There's a girl out there dancing
Doing stuff you'd never dare
A deep smile as she's spinning
Seems she hasn't got a care
Her dress is just a garment
To keep her modesty intact
And when she does those leaps
Almost gives you a heart attack
She is a gazelle on the savanna
An ancestor of Nureyov
A daughter of the San Anna
Glides as contained lightning in the air
Who knows where she came
Who can guess where she has been
Need not consider her future
In present most beautiful thing you ever seen
Watching her Earth has no boundaries
Gravity does yield
To this young faced ballerina
With stars in her heart and legs of quicksilver steel.

washed

* washed. *
My blackberry was my mobile companion
Always close at my side
Both phone and email manage
Always diligent and alive
Faithful servant constant at my call
I took no interest in its welfare
Treated it roughly without a care
Then one day it went away
Was missing for a day
No call was answered
Never an email viewed
It was lost in a pair of trousers
In a washing machine for hours
My blackberry friend deceased
All communications ceased
You never Realise what you have
Until you have it no more
So true those words recall
When into water blackberry does fall.

the show

* the show *
Often the highlight was
The animal nursery
No showbag full
Could compare
No stunt car team dare
To so blatantly tease emotions
As a Spring lamb
Or rabbit babies
Soft to touch
And excreting nervously
In a young child's grasp.

toxic hope

** toxic hope **
Drowning in this freedom
Toxic rush of hope
Eloping with my sense of reason
Can't exist with this rush of feeling
Reaches places dead so long ago
Choked algae of regrets
Cleared in a rush of exuberance
Headlong plunge into euphoria
As always will hurt so truly deeply
When the end is reached.

for the best

* for the best *
I should take it well
This rejection for reasons moral
Look into my own heart
Realise is for the best
The tangled threads would be woven
Feet become cloven
Should retain stiff upper lip
Set face to future
Ignore this present farce
Should could and would
Except Heart a banner in the wind
Fluttering frayed and torn
A rag of insecurities
Inside frail bone cage
So this blow true
Shakes my body mortal
To roots of thoughts coil
Annihilation of opportunity
Another dead end for hope.

after Xanadu

* after Xanadu *
Lead me back to Xanadu
A pleasure dome for me and you
Coleridge's dream we did own
In the time before cast out
No rotten apple drove us apart
Was a failure of our heart
The one we formed by our love
Opposite polarities seemed we were
Attracted and then repulsed
From Xanadu we did depart
Cleaved in two our loving heart.

Sun seen

* Sun seen *
This Sun the same I knew
When once I was as old as you
Hopes and dreams unfocused held
Yet knew life I would lead
Be a truly better one
Than the lives my parents led
The world in which I would live
Be fairer and more equitable
Crowned on all by love
Respect joy and enthusiasm
A life to show as example
To any who might example seek
Hatreds all put aside
A knightly sense of right
Yet now in looking backward
To where you in age sit
Seems simple became complicated
The quarrels I had seen
Were to become portents for my own
The lines of what I believed
Blurred by need and expediency
And now see in your eyes
The same disdain once held in mine
When upon my parents spied
And saw the tenor of their lives
And privately swore not for me
Under this same Sun you see
The same under which I grew
As my parents and their parents knew.

divine check-in

* divine check-in *
The furtherest ranges feel the Sun last
Is this how it feels to be meek
So righteous you inherit the Earth
Yet a golden glow on shoulders sits
Warmed by fact first shall be last
And so gloriously last shall be first
Which truly is a crappy way
To run a queueing system
Especially when the non meek
Have already boarded
Are perched loftily in first class
Washing down caviar with champagne
While the meek are trying to find some change
To buy an overpriced sandwich
Drier than the Dead Sea Scrolls.

these flames

* these flames *
Fire burn clean and true
Burn through all we ever knew
Turn to ashes heartache raw
Scorch to nothingness
Regrets of old
Lift memories from my mind
All which was or had been
Evaporate in flames
Gaseous forms of what might have been
Escape in flames illuminating
What was once and never be again.

dead girl sings

* dead girl sings *
In my head the dead girl sings
No Sylvia Plath was she
Just a darling girl who could scribe a popular tune
She died going for a swim
Such a pointless waste
Make one think become an atheist
Her music is still there to hear
Her friends and admirers meet
By an empty bench
in Berkerly square.

slighted

* slighted *
So small the slights
Ruin our daytimes
Comment ill-voiced
A tone wounding
This day begins in sorrow
Woe upon your shoulder
Unlikely to get better
If feeling allowed to fester
Cut out cancer of pain
Set aside bite of inner hurt
In glad rags soul dress
And seek warming company
Of joyous and the best.

simple

* simple *
Kiss your lips
Simple succour seek
Great beauty find
In stillness of your sleep
Admire lines and curves
Elegant sweep of neck
All the beauty you take for granted
I discover each day anew
As if we had never met before
I stop to stare afresh
Rewrite charts of you
Upon essence of my being
See universe of spirit
A light to break this dusk
Cut through night of doubt
Bring certainty of Sun
And all glorious make.

the librarians loss

* the librarians loss *
I wonder if in the future
They will talk of how the screen smelt
When first they opened a new novel
This virgin sacrifice of print
Whose covers you first open
A beauty untainted
Exploration demanded
The delicious weight of a new book
How empty future seems
In those visceral experiences
Every book weighs the same
The same as your electronic book holder
War and Peace or Spot bakes a cake
A sameness infantile
Dumbing down of tactile
When all the books twins in visage
Your library shelves used
For clumps of amateur pottery

inner cities

* inner cities *
Worker's cottages now yuppie bordellos
Quaint lumbered with modern design
Tin roofs and wood frames
Compete against polished steel
Metres of glass
The sweat of old replaced
By angst of new.

Golden Age

* Golden Age *
Kings in Italian suits
Arbitrage is their force
A penny difference
A penny gained
Hedge the buys and sells
Spread the equities
Bet on government mistakes
Black Swan events
Make the misery of others pay
Bring down a government today
Set in place a dictatorship
At least they will get the bananas out
And if you gamble wrong
Government will bail you out
To big to ever fail
Take your golden handshake
And start again
Tip the waiters and menial staff
Pat them on the head
Send them back to paupercy
Mortgages foreclosed upon
Jobs all gone offshore
They can't afford your education
Building a permanent underclass
To clean your pools and cut the grass
High above in Versailles luxury
Your life the stuff of dreams
Recall how all golden ages
Tend to end by the guillotine.

Spring shower

* Spring shower *
Here the rain arrives
A warm day expires abruptly
Clatter as pedestrians take flight
A meadow of umbrellas bloom
On slick gleaming street
Those without scurry
Seek cover as cotton shirts cling
Rain drops mis-shape business suits
Nature's vengeance on complacent city dwellers
A little water sprinkled
Remind all of many faces of Spring.

you chose

** you chose **
Death is death
Life is life
Cynicism thick enough to cut with a knife
Death of good by a thousand cuts
Evil bred in absence of respect
Long roads of loneliness
Fascination of leadership phoniness
Nothing real if not commoditised
Lives measured by levels of debt
How much they buy
Contributions to bottomline
Products we have never been
Spirit possess and dreams
Our intolerance reflected
In an intolerant state
Our fears manifest
In policies of exclusion and hate
Better nature of our souls euthanised
So we may wake everyday
Look into the mirror
Shed no tears
Console ourselves all is for the best
Even though we are so weary
As our conscience
Will not allow us proper rest.

mantle

* mantle. *
Touching the mantle
Spider web fragile
Feeling the heat already released
How in its cooling grows dangerously brittle
Is that what happened to us
Love's searing passion
Left us less malleable
Grew hard in our ways
Unable to change
As the other was changing
Brittle and fragile
Exist not knowing for a while
Where went the kisses
What happened to your smile
Then with a touch all is dispatched
Shattered and broken
Cast out unwanted
Fractured forever.

mother's love

!! Mother's Love. !!
Skip your concert of approval
Trained tracks in your head
Meter consumed at breakfast
What you want a side of what you hate
All words and words used as knives
To divide and conquer
Strip you of your worth
Cheapen every exchange
Mother's kisses followed by a slap
Torture of every minute
Overloaded with seeded guilt
Till a switch burns out
Love escapes to hate
No more mother's daughter
Most dangerous foe of all
The convert from belief in you
To seeing and knowing every trick
Fruit does not fall far from tree
Now you must deal with it
This foe with anger
Perpetually whet on guilt
Sharpened hate of the traitor
Who never wanted to be
This you shaped with fiendish glee
In the cradle
At the dinner table
In every spiteful word
Hating the young for being what you were
In the house never a home
Where a family of grief.

the daily everyday

~ the daily everyday ~
Oasis soundtrack in my head
Left behind sirens on my tv
Life used to be harder. now seems too easy
Doing the daily everyday
A mortgage on the house
Two kids at school
A wife happy when I bring wages home
A job in place for the foreseeable future
No decisions left to make
The bills and debtors must be paid
If you have imagination put it on hold
You are the daily everyday
This is the way its going to play
They had you from the cradle
Going to hold you to the grave
Living the same daily everyday
No use complaining about your stereotype
That is just another stereotype
Of a midlife crisis and schoolboy porn
A bottle blonde 10 years younger
Red sportscar for eighteen months
Till fall in love again
The unspoken cycle repeating
Maybe time to break the chain
Escape the corporate plan and pain
Return to Nature and Nature's ways
Let the seasons set your days
Farmer's Almanac be your guide
Freed from corporate drudgery
In fresh air and joy of physical vigour
Be reborn anew
Though work still does accrue
And daily everyday must do
Seasons constant demand
Rare see a farmer's son escaped from land
Seek to return to farm again
Finds office life less harsh
Sees your chains as stability
Thinks the daily everyday
Not to high a price to pay
For a steady wage and job
Unaffected by drought or flood
Thinks your mid age angst is feeble
Is prepared to live the daily everyday
For sees no evil in this way
To lead a life of duty done
Of corporate work and mortgaged home
Of family loved to love in return
For what more greater could you yearn?

karma

+$ Karma $+
All discussions stolen
Future promises swept away
Mental framework of the future dismissed
Suddenly a present unsympathetic
How long did they know
About the farce you were playing
I an unwitting participant
In this travesty of a relationship
Did they think I gave tacit acceptance
For humiliation you dealt
All those kisses past grow rancid
Embraces toxic to my soul
I would wish you dead
Except such a death lessen me
Diminish the joy I shall have
At watching you choke
On the happiness I know will be mine
As karma rewards this innocent participant
In our marriage's demise.

dawn n dusk

* Dawn n dusk
Evening song a last drinks call
Flurry of activity then hedgerow silence
Morning a blitz of Sound
Every bird loud voices wield
My song is best all others must yield
Traffic jam cacophony
Every tweet matched by another
Like Gen Y in a falling elevator
No voice will cede to others call
None are listening
Is a choral free for all
Eventually deeds of day
Call the singing participants away
And so start and end of day book ended
By singing avarian choirs raw.

serenade

* serenade *
Dear Death waiting
Tears of grief falling
You took them not me
Another slip of fate
An accident for them
Upon a Winter road
To fast or a patch of ice
The no longer matters
This heaviness of heart cares not
For technical discussion
Can find no reasons satisfactory
To continue life so hollow
When you have slain life
Ripped out reasons complete
For a just and loving life
So this serenade to you
My lover of the shadows
Halt my pulse wasted
Steal my breath needless
Allow me to take passage
To your realms beyond
Where I may meet once more
Those who went before.

that couple

***that couple ***
Ending sentences uncompleted
Replying to questions unasked
Cloying habits of couple mated
Unification never unstated
Mention one implies the other
All invites don't even bother
To request one and then the other
Forever linked as Scott and Antarctic
Indivisible by any number
Get closer than condom wrapping
Each kiss delves into throat
Cannot keep hands off each other
A nauseating sight for all to see
Surely soon will have bred
A brat or three or four
Silence their cooing tongues
Self made contraceptive
Compress to draw out passion
Leave them jaded and argumentative
Returned to mortal standards of life
Standard generic quality of Love.

yar love

!! Yar love !!
Carnal whispers unabated
Id's demand for recognition not sated
Thinking yar lines perfect
Elegant and balanced
Fleshy and yet taut
Such a glorious sight
Like to take a bite of
Spend a lover's night of
Exploring how we might love
Push firmly not shove
Embrace your potential
Release inner passion elemental
Set free joy in your heart.

spring air

+~ spring air ~+
Try to pick up sun beams
Cobwebs hung with diamond dew
Flowers on edge of bloom
This is morning brightful
Spring air delightful
Total ecstasy for the mind
Thoughts not insightful
Just joy bubbles rising
Spring morning kind
Set aside the schoolbooks
All those dull and sour looks
Escape corporate mindset
Splash about in this wonder
Not hot as blazing summer
Nor sear you as gales of winter
This is Spring on best behaviour
Light breeze kissing
Sunbeams for the catching
Make my morning a total wonderland.

for AB

** for AB **
Something in your twangs
Wire under stress snaps
Going to the backblocks
Of hay twine and fencing wire
Anything can be kept running
Redundancy means you are dead
City backdrop skyline
Wheeler dealer slickness
Or else you are gone
Short lived camaraderie
Before bottomline gains precedence
Over lives of staff and kin
Brown boxes on the desks of
The latest to be stripped of
A means to make a fiscal end
Dreaming of the backblocks
Where the work never ends
Follows seasons flow
A cycle continuous which never ends
Can judge worth at the harvest
Where we all have value
Beyond lawbook and the journal
And the hell of commerce infernal.

*~ the bright young things ~*

 *~ the bright young things ~* 

We are the bright young things

the successors to the rulers of the world

everything which went before

shall dim in glory before our story

the things we shall achieve

injustices set right

tyrants bring down

our time will be as theirs would be

as day is unto night

we are the passion seekers

gold truth drinkers

explorers after reason

all the world will discover

the glory of our season

all generations to follow

find our memory hallowed

for all we will achieve

remove the deception and greed

feed the world and to equality aspire

no child in poverty shall exist

all wrongs shall be right

diseases cross the world

no more shall blight it

a perfect utopia we will create

of love and peace without hate

an end to war

an end to famine

an end to so much more

and now it seems we have been and done

and nothing has from our efforts come

equality is still denied

babies are born to poverty

and from lack of aid they die

their are wars more confused than before

we defeated communism

pulled down the war

avoided conflict worldwide

toppled a dictator or two

tried to democratise lands and peoples

give them an alternative

to the evil medieval rules

which torture them and leave them poor

and we failed everywhere

so self aware our conscience pricked

evermore by the mistakes we did 

the things we leave are debt

a sense of exhausted despair

we do not pass the torch

we have cast it away

shall need to be another generation

who can raise it up on another day

see the ideals on peaks far

begin again the journey we did

to seek a world of commonsense and love

as we our crying eyes are hid.

 

perfect u

** perfect u **
The danger of your concealed weapons
Is that they are not concealed at all
You have them full on show
A disarming charm
Smile upon coral pink lips
Conveying sensuality of expression
Hair in a fashionably uneven cut
Eyes of shifting horizon grey
All these unconcealed
Hide a truth of you
You know not weapon you wield
Power possessed over men
Those frail naïve creatures
Always so over confident
They seek to find some subterfuge
A conspiracy or spell
To explain why you so enthrall
When it is in fact they
Who upon your beauty illusions place
Deceive themselves with misconceptions
More than your perfection can carry
More than any mortal should lift
When all the beauty is you.

dawn sketches

* dawn sketches *
Morning breaks over your back
Sweet shadows haunt these plains
Lines and curves accentuated
Straying brush of dawn's orange glow
In all of Nature's majesty
Never more beautiful have I seen
Of artistic splendour
Than this still life presented
In gallery of my bed.

locklove

* locklove *
These clumsy thoughts moving
Loud sounds unsettling
Darkness conceals safety of day
Lean into your warmth
Intimacy of fear draws closer
Our kindred nervous souls
Knit tighter than joy.

Null Escape

*+ Null escape +*
All the wired failures
Drunkard madness rage
In clasp of alcoholic dispossession
Escape the bindings of the age
Be blind and incomprehensible
Plead Ignorance of the things I do
Be bloodied violent and indiscrete
Another night's forgetfulness
Escape route for the soul
Stumble down the tarred streets
Searing heat of alcohol perspiration
Tunnel vision panorama
Each step more unsteady than the last
Hope to wake safe in my bed
No more damaged than I am now
Angry drumbeat in my head
Bitter bile in my stomach
Aching joints as if beaten
A warrior of Bacchus
Laid low by pleasured escape.

offered heart

* * offered heart * *
I offer you my heart
You add it to the pile
With all the charlatans before
The rakes and cads undermining
The smiling assassins two timing
Who dealt your belief such a blow
Did unhinge your confidence
Make your trust in others go

I offer you my heart
With kisses and truth rare
I dare you to take it
Understand fully that I care
Across every ocean
In any place or time
You are the only one I love
Fixed now in words rhyme

I offer you my heart
It is free of any other ties
Alone and unencumbered given
All other claims this heart defies
Free you from the illusions
Others have offered as truths before
A fact this love is true
From outward to deepest inner core

I offer you my heart
Still you find it wanting
Seems my love is unrequited
This failure permanent is haunting
Those liars who went before me
I blame for your failure to comprehend
My heart would be the greatest prize
My love be eternal without end.

Modern working mantra

* Modern working mantra *

This drop as if a lift
Plunged from beneath my feet
My stomach yet to catch up
Seems this life has me beat
The hours spent not rejoicing
Bend my thoughts to enforcing
Mantra of modern working drone
Tomorrow will be better

This day is an aberration
Discard these memories from your head
Else they be as bags of lead
Heavy and slowing you on your way
Forget these moments of humiliation
When you exit workplace busy
Workplace misery do not assign to memory
Instead be thankful for day completed
And the salary which will be presented
Tomorrow will be better

The next day even better than that
Just forget this day resolved
As you had to forget all those before
One day your day will surely come
Until then keep your spirits high
To depression do not succumb
Know tomorrow must be better
Tomorrow will be better
The amnesic mantra of the modern working drone.

These dreams or those

*** these dreams or those ***
These dreams or those
Found online or manufactured
Fake industry strength applause
Laughter canned and deployed
Sunlight from spotlights
The Hollywood dream machine
Illusions of reality provided
Promoting a world not for you
A world for the chosen few
The blonde and bosomed brilliant
Or the pectorially assertive alpha
Every word a witty sharp delivery
The homes in which they live
Mansions of exclusive fashion
No work all fun
The opposite of the race you run
These lives to which you aspire
Which exist only upon the screens
A creation of modern desires
Fabricated in artificial climes
The peak of the greatest crimes
To steal away the real
Offer instead an illusionary deal
Of material wants and endless youth
The only rewards for the vain and uncouth
To believe such small a world to gain
An offering only leading to greater pain
When all you want found empty
The illusion fed not the spirit
All wisdom offered now dead
Dulled and dumbed down in presentation
Upon the screens so many worship
Sipping down a sleeping tonic.

Obsolescence

* obsolescence *
The obsolescence of things
Does not cut the heart
As the obsolescence of people
The trades they know reduced
Knowledge no longer valued
Shuffled out by newer faces
Into a world not understood
Competing for careers which don't exist
Never sure when the path changed
When they became fixed and unchanging
The dreams they sought became mirages
Always placed just out of reach
Till even those visions splendid
From their thoughts were ended
Instead reality grips them tight
During long sleepless pauper night
Arising to greet a day
No different from the empty one before
When all efforts fruitless prove
To find a job and pride restore
Their time is past and they alive remain
Dying slowly each and every second
Of each and every day.

Coming round

* coming round*
Rattle the cages
Dog catcher's coming round
Treats in his pockets
As leads the dogs down
Along the concrete corridor
To the vet's table
A treat to settle nerves
An injection in the neck
Another stray disposed of
Enthusanasia for canines
A treat and then death
Perhaps the future holds this
For all as we grow old
A smiling physician
And a clean sharp prick
And away we go
Seeking a last and final secret.

corporate corpses walking

* corporate corpses walking *
Calling all the dead men
Business corporate corpses walking
The zombies of pin stripe and black shoes
See how the lives you lead kill you
Drain a little life each day
Emails and memos sucking vitality
No Occupational Health and Safety
For the loyal devoted lapdogs of industry
Work away their lives
Till dry and pale and empty
Dismissed to junkyard of obsolence
As newer models take their place
As eager new and brash as once they were
Till the cuts of a thousand business needs
Murder them a bit each and every day
Till on completion of corporate service
Find you have whored your life to the corporation
Your reward for such gradually dying devotion
A round of drinks and ashes in your mouth
And a world you don't recognise
Which has no place for you to play.

the house of Self built

* the house of Self built *
The bricks of consequence build
A verendah of repercussions juts out
Into the reality of our life
No elephant in the room
An entire mansion constructed
Walls of decisions made
Doors formed from actions taken
A mansion of our own design
Lodestone around our neck
Of maintenance rates and upkeep needed
To spin our life nimbly as if a plate upon a stick
Takes all the gravity we can manage
There is no escaping what we have built
Where we go so goes our building
As inexorably partnered as bricks and mortar
Or thoughts and actions performed
And the inevitable consequences which follow.

Spring to the city

* Spring to the city *
The colours bright and flashing
Spring's foliage and blooms repeated
In the garments worn by human populace
In cities of concrete steel and glass
As if the spirit of Spring bursting
Has infected all those who breath
A carnival of colour proclaimed
An escape from mourning clothes of Winter
We all breath alive and free
Resurrected from grave gray Winter
For now the world is blooming brightly
And so in unison and accompaniment are we.
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High wire

* High wire *
The headline act is you
Upon the highest wire
Triple somersaults and then
A leap through a loop of fire
These are the standard parameters
Your relationships work within
Juggling your own life wishes
To coordinate with theirs
Looking for support and none forthcoming
In the eternal unceasing fight
To gain a little peace
Live a life which feels right
Love the one you would
And feel equally loved in return
Usually to your standard parameters
You add a complexity of 9
Perhaps a backflip to be achieved
A standard to be lowered
Hostile family with which to contend
Some unforgivable action
Which you are expected to forgive
This is no Hollywood presentation
Seems work still must be done
There are so many other obligations
Which hold our love to ransom
Slices up your time
So that when upon the wire
So high above the world
Nervous and unsure
For never been this high before
There are gales blowing
Plucking at your form
Alone upon the high wire
Trying not to look down
Knowing if you were to fall
Break your heart again forever.

set self a sorry start

* set self a sorry start *
Starts are often easier
Than endings presented
A no escape finality
Annihilation of heart
Taste of ashes in your mouth
Mounds of sadness weigh you down
All those former smiles
Bent askew to support a frown
Maybe would have been better
If never started at all
Allowed self to instead wonder
Of how hard the heart would fall
Instead of seeking goddesses
Seek someone much easier
To leave or cease involvement with
A token of affection
Which would not maim the heart
When they choose to leave.

cease the ticking

* cease the ticking *
If we were to lay down clocks
Abandon timepieces all
Remove those judges self made
Of how long we have to do
Limits which we may spend
Those executioners of moments and minutes
Calendars of our age
Arbitrators of our work and play
Which objectively thin slice our day
Set our events to working week
Stipulate the time for weekend retreat
If we could lay them down
Turn them to face the wall
Stop and muffle all pendulums
Remove hands from numbered face
Detach the power which allows These mechanical glowing monsters
To hold us in their thrall
Instead return to season marks
The four alone our time march pass
No greater division than these we need
To know when to plough
When to reap or sow the seed
Or when to turn indoors
For nights are long and air cold
Is not the weather for
The infirm or those growing old
As we pass the time undriven by
Concerns of every minute spent
Instead relentless pace relents
Allow to find moments peaceful
Between dawn glow and dusk dim
No other signals need we trust
To measure our lives as they pass
Except life's dawn chorus loud
And gentle growing stillness of our dusk.

Bliss

** Bliss **
Trying to lay to rest
Emotions in my thoughts
Electricity across my skin
Champagne bubbles in my veins
Set in artifact of words
Ephemeral feelings fleeting and raw
Develop a new language beautiful
To capture moments bliss
Relate how it is and was
Frisson of your smile
Pilot light of first kiss
Sparkling invitation in your eyes
A sense of timelessness and haste
Of knowing moments perfectly
Removing all infinites of doubt
All this simple trying to capture
Mould into lines and form
Nail down and in bluestone hold
The particles subatomic
Of lovers loving bliss
So instead a kernel form
A point round which may orbit
Feelings deep without form
As solid as gravity's pull
Clear and sweet as stars silver
A song without copyright
Rhythm in my blood alone
Pulsing living breathing feeling
Whispered smile on your lips
Burning trace after your kiss
Joyous tiredness after exhilarating bliss
Trying to lay down and retain
Hold insitu so can conjure forth anew
All there was in those moments rich
Depth of feeling through to universe's core
Richness beauty melody upon lips
We together only knew
The moments transcending life
Our eternal rush of bliss.

Cherry petals

* Cherry petals *
Cherry petals falls
Smudge of white and pink
Blur the memories of kisses
Hovering over your lines
Planting kisses sweet
Tracing emotions deep and rich
Lust for life is tapped
Cherry petals on your throat
Leading up your neck
Smudged across the lines
Of where you and I are met
Skin warm as Spring
Kisses gentle fall
As the cherry petals silken
Smudges of pink and white.

Lens of Words

* Lens of Words *
Easy words slid
Silver down the panes
Of conversation between us
And gradually fog lifts
Reveals the landscape of you
The who you are and why
The reasons why you wear
Real colour of your hair
Political leanings you possess
The career you have made
Work ethic you hold and have
How you wonder often
If between words a code
A jazz rhythm only understood
By the good or the bold
And I see this panorama of you
And have to smile to myself
Becuase I do so love this view.

New Environmentalism

* new environmentalism *
Think slow thoughts
The new environmentalism
Don't think global or local
Instead think self
Your own thoughts
Don't consume others ideas
Follow blindly others lead
Think the entire line
From raw material to manufactured
Use of electricity
The burning of coal
Use of water
Release of toxins and gases
Understand your role
Understand your needs and emotions
Save yourself
Then save your world
The new environmentalism
Starts inside your thoughts and soul.

hoping for amnesty

* hoping for amnesty *
Declare an amnesty
A peace today
For warring couple
Divided and united
A house brokenhearted
All the dreams rent
Words of sharpen leather
Pain without gain
The same tired soliloquies
Of want and need
Of care and bleed
Hurting with every embrace
Battering each other round this place
No professional wrestling fiction
Every wound deep and genuine
Claret spilled heart's blood
Not home now abattoir
And we dying beasts
Die so hard and so loudly.

Circles in circles

* circles in circles *
Roundrels in sky at dawn
Circles within circles
Archery targets red yellow and blue
Ripples on a pond
Iris and pupil repeating each other's form
Hubcap silver and tyre
Circles within circles
Dreams not often repeated
King and the servants
Specially chosen to eternally served
The infinity marked
By circles with circles
A never ending state
No starting and no ending
As they are repeating
As circles in circles.

Jordan

* jordan *
Slow trains for Jordan
Down to holy waters trip
Pilgrims in reverence silent
Thinking into waters slip
Perhaps cannot stand in same spot
For river always hurries on
But perhaps water which brushes
Might have brushed against them too
Those holy men of history
Guides of our lands
Those people to whom we pray
Prophets who do tell us
There is a greater plan.

Templated

* templated *
How you equate your life
To signposts in your mind
By those who maintain their hold
Through the hours of daily grind
Be born attend your kindergarten
School and university pursue
Entry level jon at a large corporate
Safe indenture of your time
A salary just sufficient to
Allow you to buy a house
Or rent and family support
While always dangling carrot
A little more effort
And a slightly larger reward
If prepared to spend the time
In servitude to company laws
Change from one company to another
Different street address
Same taking of your lifetime
To accrue the dollars and cents
For a subsistence existence
When unable any more to work
When your bones truly ache
All thoughts are slow to reach
And what you are is not who you were
Even memories in your mind
Dying and fading out of reach
A life spent living the life they said
The life you had to live
Stable and orderly and neat
Work between certain hours
Sleep when it is dark
Do not oppose the lifestyle
Taught for milleniums
To peasants planting seeds
To seasonal events
The life you lead imposed
Through template in your head.

Thimble

* thimble *
This heavy load in a heart
This trembling thimble of love
Tipped over and loving all run out
An ugly smear on your life
A stain which will not fade
Not even sure why love spilled
Never seemed to be your intention
To believe love could end
Destroy a relationship which did not offend
All the same has now been done
The love has drained away
A rancid taste in mouth to stay
Broken vows rough edges scrape
Dig at veneer of apathy
Bring to surface bile of guilt
An acid kick in all you see
A world of complete negativity
All brought on by what you did
When allowed thimble full to fall.

Getting to OFF

* Getting to OFF *
I can't find the OFF
The switch I want to cross
Move down push in
Change its current position
Life is on and I am in
A thousand moments minute
And deep claws rake my soul
Heart a deep sea trawling net
Trawling though the cold complacency
Drowning hope love and ideals
The sniping nibbling deals
Making me less than I thought
I ever was or ever thought to be
A wasted futile straw clown
Gradually being whittled down
No more weight than a feather
Should have always known better
An easy escape not acceptable
I will live till Death does settle
This wildly beating anxious heart
Then plant some tulip bulbs in me
And as I decompose see beauty.

Those shadows slight

* those shadows slight *
Silent bounds of night
Moon searchlight marks
Advance of shadows slight
Those terrors in almost darkness
Unrelenting horrors of child's night
Hiding in the wardrobe
Lurking underneath the bed
Cast by dressing gown hanging
These silent marauders wait
To pounce and rend and tear
Nameless adbominations fierce
Creatures of sharp teeth and claws
Cast from infernal imaginations
Innocence of eye and face
Feels them drawing near
Perhaps these are the ghosts
Of future's yet to see
The adult challenges they will face
Fears they must defeat
The inhabitants of the dark
Who intrude on edge of sleep
Leave you lying awake in bed
Hair prickling on your neck
At advance of shadows slight
These terrors of your night.

Turner's sky

* Turner's Sky *
A Turner skyscape
Blue and grays and whites
Swirled across the sky
And chromatic rays on horizon
Sun dipping now to die
Is evening of the day
A death to work or play
Night shall soon arrive
And on this doorstep exit
A Turner sky fullblown
All the clouds whipped and puffed
Colour bent to edge of prism
Flatten into glowing beams
Reflected from sky and clouds
Shadows cast by these sky giants
Tweak and twist the light some more
Palate knife spread and curl
Setting forth this Turner sky
Palate mixed and mixed anew
Finding shades to express
The sky's moving moods
Reflected light on this edge
And dusk racing the painter's brush
To capture this moment for infinity.

Riting 'n Reading

* the 2 R's - Riting 'n Reading *
Writing is not easy
Writing entails pain
Writing should tax feeling
Writing should strain the brain
For reading must never do
For reading must be simple
For reading must be easy
For reading you must want to do
Writing should link thoughts
Writing should be release
Writing should allow empathy
Writing should create a readers feast.

these fears of mine

* these fears of mine *
The fears I hold are mine
And mine alone to tend
The wonder if work done well
If remarks might offend
All the politic discussions
Of what should be done and why
The balancing of issues raised
Those left out in dark
The worries of what may come to past
The mortgage must be paid
Even as bills mount higher
My cheerfulness I wield
Against negativity and doubt
The stress forever mounts
There seems to be no escape
Always more to be completed
Less is provided with which to do
All the things so urgent
A pause the end of you
Teetering above a chasm
Of your life's sharp obligations
To fall is to fail and instant doom
To stay an art of perseverance
Beyond the means of all
Eventually all shall fail
Into chasm dashed
Upon sharp rocks be broken
Another useless casualty
Thank goodness for my merriment
The smile upon my face
For if they knew the fears which lurk
Would summarily eject me from this place.

* renaissance *
Mosiac chips of meaning
Floating in a flood
Trying to decipher yearning
Cement of Life astray
Love a lighthouse beacon
Lit by filament of Hope
Expecting dots to all connect
The dominoes in a row to fall
One day when I am older
When wisdom brilliant bestowed
For now it seems Dark Ages
Period without learnings true
Await the bright Renaissance
Perhaps will start with you.

Meditate

* meditate *
Point of Null pulsing
Black absorbing presence
Tranquil waters ripple
The soundscape of Peace
Time and Emotion stilled
Drifting unattached
From Wants Needs Desires
Untethered from Worldly Concerns
Escape to reflection
A thoughtless world
Unplagued by doubts
Become part of Universe
Atoms of Self mix
Medidate to redemption
Buddha's dream flowers.

Self critiquing

* self critiquing *
A thousand courtrooms in my head
The sentence life until I'm dead
Of these judges pernicious
Their sly sniping words vicious
Demean of my humanity
Highlight my constant fraility
The weakness of my actions
Lack of fibre in my morals
Sponginess of my compassion
Ashes of my passion
No defence witnesses are called
For none it seems can be found
Who would not under cross examination
Become a witness for the prosecution
And the list the prosecution supplied
Reads as a phone book of loved and acquantainces
Seems everyone has an axe to grind
A stiletto to slip between my ribs
An obscenity to cast
My judgement to question
In the dock I stand
Defenceless before my self
The recrimination endless
The vitriol infinite
Seems by all ways these things are measured
I am a conceited know nothing greasy little shit.

The Avoiding Dance

+The Avoiding Dance+

106 pairs of eyes avoid
The chance of meeting another pair
Non acknowledgement of commuters
In their private places quiet
The travel in and travel out
Not a time for strangers
For some strangers are stranger
Than you have ever wanted to know

212 eyes studiously denying existence
Of any others on this carriage
Solitary travel sought
No exchange of views wanted
Not seeking privilege of knowing better
The strangers on this train
To remain strangers evermore
Public transport code unspoken
To blankly stare away and all ignore.

City Spring

* City Spring
Green is the shoots
Green is tall grass reaching
Green the fields I see
Green lawns cut short
Green Spring everywhere to see
Sun is out and breeze is fair
Fresh clean city air
The storms have springcleaned
Roads gleam as drying slowly up
Storms have whisked fumes away
Air is clear no orange smudge
On horizion of this city home
We can breath and taste the world
A hint of Spring in every breath
Awake and free in season's thrall
Seems a new life for all.

The northern frontier again

* northern frontier again *

A war distant and unkind
Unable to a nation bind
Bickering safely back home
While young men in deserts roam
No accounting for the taste
Of what the public will waste
How the budget is not deep enough
To purchase vital war stuff
The pawnbrokers hold their goods
Down payment on body armour
Camouflage is useless against
Taliban with a Kashnilkov
And in Sloane square
Arabs race their Bugattis for a dare
Made wealthy on oil money
Protected by homecounty lads with short hair
All the world seems turned upside down
Veterans left forgotten on return
Euro  trumps defending pound
How long till Kinghtsbridge burns.

crack

 * crack *
If to open vistas
Tear the world asunder
Move the dreams to page
Lock down thoughts in words
This conceivably may be done
With stapler hammer or nailgun
Nibs of pens are insufficient
Keyboards of the world deficient
Bring on a hydrogen bomb
Something to crack the crust
Set loose molten flowing juices
Of living Earth beneath our feet
Eruptions continuous in consciousness
This rush of ideas fermenting
Bursting forth under sustained pressure
An idea more lethal than
All weapons all strength all nay-saying
A religion born
A philosophy blooming
An invention from shadows rise
And change this world
Rewrite this world
In the shape of dreams made words.

Party political mindset

 * party political mindset *
Dreamlite states of decision
Tomorrow will never come
Uncomfortable truths need not be addressed
Someone else can right wrongs
If we say it is right it is
History will need to praise us
The electrorate must love us
Leadership by following the polls
Politics of aggression and denial
For any idea not by us conceived
More important to retain power
Rather than to do what needs be done
Every squeak must be oiled
Every vested interest appeased
In case they withdraw support
The party political must survive
Even if the country is gone.

mind worm

 * mind worm *
Those music days
Return in my head
The sounds of tunes trapped
Only I can hear repetitively
The beat pounding as my pulse
The refrain distraction to my voice
Some sickly sweet pop song
Inescapable all day long
Winding round and round
If only I knew second verse
Instead this first repetitive I curse
Cannot even recall the group
Who conjured this addictive alphabet soup
Could be A-Ha trading cliches
Or Village People young man's clubs
Constant pounding at my brain
Sickly sweet endless refrain 
As I try to escape my own head
Running up the hill.

Live fast, die fat

 * live fast, die fat *
Charge of the fried brigade
Potato cakes to the front
Battered fish at the rear
Steaming chips as reinforcements
A call to cholesterol
To be consumed with savage glee
This fast feast laid before me
Splash on wounds of tomato sauce
A holy sprinkling of vinegar
And the welcome bite of salt
The paper bindings are my plate
Presented carried and kept warm
Now this fried food meets its fate
I may not be destroyer of worlds
But to this food I am Ragarnok
The final day and annihilation
I wolf down chip and fish and cake
Revenge on Jaws as I consume my flake
This is a meal savoury and fine
On which even the poor can dine.

end

* end *
Tired whistling in the dark
Another day succumbed I mark
Of toil for the salary
Nearer to blocked artery
Heart attack or stroke strike
Remove me from mortal coil
Show no result for worklife toil
All those things listed for afterwards
After work after school always after
Never to be begun or ended
Seems the Fates I have offended
To die with so much undone
Living life to get to there
Rather than doing here
Laughter of gods in my ears
As chest tightens and face my fears
This is cessation of my life
No time for hugs of children or wife
This is the end of my Time
End of poetry rhyme and line.

Take me home

* take me home *
Take me home
I am all done with roaming
Take me home
All these foreign cities look the same
Take me home
To the world of vegemite and lamingtons
Take me home
I homesick for the Sun's attentions

My backpacks full
Of strange coins and adventures
Trinkets and cheap postcards bought
In a dozen semi-exotic ports
All these accents run into incomprehensibility
Give me a Queensland drawl
Or a no worries from the south
Sydneysiders where everyones mate
Take me home
I am done with foreign roaming

Take me home
Where all your complaining is whinging
Take me home
To snakes and flies and sharks
Take me home
To horizon skylines uninvaded
Take me home
To eucalyptus scent and kookaburra laughter
Take me home
I am done with foreign roaming

Take me home
To my own bed
Take me home
By plane sea or even walking
Take  me home
And set me free
Take me home
Just take me home
Every journey must have an ending
Take me home
So I can begin all my new beginnings
Take me home
Because I am all done with this foreign roaming

Take me home.

Take me home.


Take me home.